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The Goodman Institute Health Blog

How Obamacare Affected Part-Time Work

Posted on January 5, 2023 by John C. Goodman

The incentives:

Employers are not required to offer insurance to many, if not most, on‐call and temporary workers. To circumvent the mandate, therefore, employers may choose to reduce standard weekly hours below 30 or shift their mix of staffing toward greater use of on‐call, direct‐hire temporaries or agency temporaries. Additionally, employers may choose to outsource certain tasks to firms with fewer than 50 full‐time employees. Ironically, the employer mandate could reduce the quality of jobs for low‐ and mid‐skill workers by increasing the share of low‐hours, part‐time (defined as averaging less than 30 hours per week); temporary; and contract employment—categories that often are associated with relatively low compensation and job instability.

The evidence:

We estimated that the ACA increased low‐hours, involuntary parttime employment by 2–3 percentage points, or 500,000 to 1 million workers, in retail, accommodations, and food services—the sectors where employers are most likely to reduce hours if they choose to circumvent the mandate.

This from a new Cato research paper.

4 thoughts on “How Obamacare Affected Part-Time Work”

  1. Ron Greiner MSA King says:
    January 5, 2023 at 10:35 am

    The ELIGIBILITY Clause was 30 hours of WORK per week at the firm’s usual place of business performing your REGULAR duties to KEEP EMPLOYER-BASED Benefits. So employers now have CLOWN EMPLOYEES work 28 hours a week and get Obamacare for free. BUT, Polling indicates that the UNINSURED believe Obamacare costs money when it’s FREE even for ILLEGAL ALIENS! Blue Cross of Florida Press Release 1/3/23: Financial assistance for health insurance (also called a subsidy) isn’t just for U.S. citizens. Many lawfully present immigrants qualify for help paying for insurance through the Marketplace, including green card holders and those with work or student visas. And receiving financial help will not negatively impact one’s immigration status and process due to the public charge regulations, which were eliminated in March 2021.

    Blue Cross Association has us CLOWN taxpayers paying Blue Cross for MEDICAID and OBAMACARE for CLOWN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS and the X-Middle Class who work multiple 28 hour per week jobs. Full TIME Government CLOWN Employees all have Blue Cross MONOPOLY Employer-based Benefits. It’s the law!

    God Bless America, land of the Blue Cross Monopoly instead of the FREE and BRAVE!

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  2. Bob Hertz says:
    January 5, 2023 at 10:48 am

    This is one issue where the Single Payer crowd may actually have the right answer. Most Single Payer designs rely on a payroll tax that makes no distinction on hours worked. (Just like FICA taxes today,) If a McDonald’s has 20 part-time employees making $20,000 each, for a total payroll of $400,000, then the employer will pay a tax on $400,000.

    Of course if we got close to a Single Payer plan with this kind of funding, the restaurant industry would go ballistic. For many restaurants, (and Uber and others), the entire business plan depends on cheap labor.

    In Denmark or Germany, health care taxes are uniform on every employer, and every employee is insured. Might be a better way to go!

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    1. Ron Greiner MSA King says:
      January 5, 2023 at 2:18 pm

      No Bob being like Socialist Europe who is against the ropes and trying to survive because of their Big Government Socialist ways! How is their NEGATIVE INTEREST rates working out?

      Maybe Bob you should consider FREE enterprise and letting the American people choose their health insurance instead of their employer or big brother Government. Milton Friedman says that the Government would have a sand shortage if Government was in charge of the Sahara Desert. The GOVERNMENT can’t do ANYTHING without fraud and illegality. The Government turns everything it touches into SHI*! Comprendo?

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  3. Bob Hertz says:
    January 6, 2023 at 8:31 am

    If we have pure freedom of choice in health insurance, some persons will choose not to buy any insurance — but they may be in an accident or have a completely unforeseen illness. When that happens, they (or their spouse and children) will expect to have a helicopter ambulance, if needed, and top-notch emergency treatment.

    This seems to me to require some type of tax, some level of financial coercion. The correct debate in my opinion is how large this tax should be. Now it can be argued that a large payroll tax is way too excessive and left-wing….I can buy that argument.

    The Affordable Care Act originally had a requirement that anyone who stayed uninsured would pay about 2.5% of income as a penalty. In theory this would help to fund emergency care for the uninsured. I did not think this was a bad law. The Republicans made a constant stink over this degree of coercion, however, and this mandate/tax was dropped in about 2019.

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For many years, our health care blog was the only free enterprise health policy blog on the internet. Then, when the NCPA closed its doors, the health blog stopped as well.

During this five-year hiatus no one else has come forward to claim the space. So, my colleagues and I have decided to restart the blog in connection with the Goodman Institute. We invite you and others to use this forum to share your views.

John C. Goodman,

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